In
order to better discern their career paths, many Honors students spend their
summer interning at various companies and organizations. From Washington D.C.
to Germany, students learn to hone their skills and gain experience for the
future.

According
to Director of Career Development Cindy Seghers, internships are important for
a variety of reasons.

“Internships
offer the opportunity to confirm, refine, and revise a career path,” said
Seghers. “Confirm it by saying, ‘Yes, this is it, now that I've applied it I
know that I could do this for a long, long time.’ Refining a career path is
important because being able to refine your interests is good. Someone can do
an internship in a broader area and say, ‘This was almost it, but not quite.’”

Perhaps
the most important part of an internship between confirming and refining is
revising.

“It's
advantageous to know what you want to do and what you don't want to do as early
as possible,” said Seghers. “And one benefit of an internship is to find
out what fits and what doesn't.”

Honors
College students are taking advantage of the opportunity to test their career
goals in a variety of ways. Here are some of their stories.

Melanie Carroll – Getting Ready for Medical School

Physics major Melanie Carroll is interning with St. Jude Research
Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee as a research assistant in their Radiation
Oncology division. Her research project involves
measuring distortion in MR images and quantifying its effects on radiation
treatment planning in patients with brain tumors. As part of the Pediatric
Oncology Education Program, she has also been given the opportunity to attend
daily seminars, shadow doctors in different specialties, and volunteer with
inpatients.

Carroll is applying to medical
school with an interest in oncology, though she says her interests may change
before residency.

“There are about 60 other interns in
the same program as me, some of which are pre-med as well and some who have
just finished their first year of medical school,” said Carroll. “It has been
really helpful to talk with everyone also filling out applications and people
who successfully made it through the process.”

For Carroll, seeking out advisors
helped her make the decisions necessary for her future.

“I
would definitely encourage Honors students to take advantage of meeting with
advisors because their advice can really make a difference,” said Carroll.

Garrett Clawson – Learning about Community

LASAL
Scholar and Political Science major Garrett Clawson is working in the Mayor’s
office in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Mayor’s Internship program placed him with
Sportran, Shreveport’s public transit system.

“I have gotten to know people of
nearly every social class and every part of the city,” said Clawson. “I have
been able to refine a plethora of skills, including my communication, computer,
and organization skills.”

Part
of his job requires him to ride the city buses to complete passenger counts, which
Clawson shared was his favorite aspect of the internship.

“During this time, I got to discuss
the city and its residents with bus drivers along several different routes as
well as get direct input from riders, said Clawson. “The experience has deepened
my resolve to enter public service and make a difference in local communities
around the state and around the country.”

After completing his internship,
Clawson will return to LSU to enter his sophomore year and learn more about
public policy.

Andrea Gallo – Covering a Tornado

Mass
Communications major Andrea Gallo is spending her summer working with the
Dallas Morning News as an intern on the enterprise desk.

“So much of what I've learned is
simply how to be a better writer, how to structure and organize and focus my
stories, how to lead audiences in and out,” said Gallo. “It's much more
specialized training than I've had before.”

Having worked on coverage for such
stories as the Oklahoma tornado tragedy and the 50th anniversary of
JFK’s assassination, Gallo says she eventually hopes to be writing for a news
organization when she graduates.

Gallo says that such classes as
Professor Bob Mann’s “See How They Run”, a seminar about presidential
elections, have helped her in terms of finding and learning from writing mentors.

“The Honors College has helped me
because of the classes that it's allowed me to take and the professors I've
been able to work with because of it,” said Gallo.

Aimee Landry – Working in Germany

Biochemistry
major Aimee Landry is spending the summer in Tubingen, Germany, working with
the DAAD program (German Academic Exchange Service). Assisting a PhD student at
the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Landry spends her days
studying a protein that is part of the pathway for neuronal migration.

“I've been
expressing protein using E.coli, then purifying it in order to
study it alone,” said Landry. “The end goal of the project is to determine the
structure by X-ray crystallography.”

When Landry returns home, she hopes
to pursue her Honors Thesis utilizing the research she learned, and to
ultimately attend medical school at LSU New Orleans.

“The
Honors College has given me an atmosphere where I feel comfortable and has
provided challenges that I would not otherwise have found,” said Landry. “I
could not imagine my time at LSU with the Honors College.”

Brandon Oubre – Communicating with Deep Space

Computer
Science major Brandon Oubre is spending his summer interning with NASA. He has
been working on ACAWS (Advanced Caution And Warning System), which monitors
vehicle telemetry in order to diagnose anomalies, identify the root causes of
problems, and find ways to fix those problems.

“The
proposed use of ACAWS is to reduce mission control costs and to assist the crew
on deep space manned missions, such as those to Mars, where communication speed
is limited by the speed of light,” said Oubre.

His
primary job on the project has been software development, largely with ACAW’s
user interface.

“The most rewarding part of the internship has been committing my fixes and
improvements to the official version of the product,” said Oubre. “Knowing that
my work is officially in a system that will be used for further research into
some exciting areas.

Upon
graduation, Oubre plans to attend graduate school for a PhD in Computer
Science.

Grace Reinke – In the Majority

LASAL
Scholar and Political Science major Grace Reinke is interning in Washington
D.C. with the Feminist Majority Foundation. Her various responsibilities
include contributing to blogs for the foundation, writing news stories for the
organization’s Daily Feminist Newswire, and working on projects with her fellow
12 interns.

“I've
learned a lot about news writing, blogging, non-profit management, and overall
government functionality,” said Reinke. “The most rewarding part of my
internship has been working for a group that I have really looked up to for a
long time. Work is much easier when you are working for something you actually
feel passionately about.”

For
Reinke, narrowing down her internship choices was difficult, but she found
support with the Honors College.

“The
Honors College has really emphasized the importance of internships since I've
been a part of it, so it was great to have all that support when I was figuring
out how to choose from and apply to all the millions of internships out there.”

When
her internship ends, she plans to continue her campus involvement for the
second half of her LSU career.

Emily Smith – The Happiest Place on Earth

Recent
graduate and Business major Emily Smith is currently participating in a
professional internship with Disney Club Vacation, located at Walt Disney World
in Orlando, Florida. Smith works as a Sales Assistant and is responsible for
ensuring a smooth sales experience for guests interested in purchasing Vacation
Club memberships.

“I am learning a lot about sales and Disney's methods of
selling products to guests in a no-pressure atmosphere,” said Smith. “Above
all, our guests' experiences are the most important thing to us and I work hard
every day to preserve the Disney image and quality.”

While Smith is not certain what path
she will pursue after her internship finishes, she knows that she would like to
remain in the field of marketing and sales, with a focus on service.

Along with helpful advisors, Smith
says the Honors College has given her the necessary boost to find the work
experience she wants.

“The Honors College looks great on
my resume and has been the source of a few conversation starters in
interviews and career expos,” said Smith. “The Honors College has definitely
provided me with the most outstanding and useful resources that can be found on
LSU's campus.”